“Every time we had a rush going we turned it over somewhere in the neutral zone and they were re-attacking,” Brière said.

“It puts our defenseman in a tough position. They’re coming up and then somehow they have to back up and take the rush coming back at them…We know that’s an area we were really bad at today and that we’ll have to improve.

“It’s better to have that game now than in the playoffs. Hopefully, we learned a little bit from that.”

Douglas Murray was given a game misconduct for his hit from behind on Johan Sundstrom. It was Murray’s first game back after serving a three-game suspension for an illegal check on Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Mike Kostka.

Therrien declined to say much about the the hit. “We’re going to let the league decide that….I hope the kid is alright, though. This is my first concern.”

The team announced after the game that Alex Galchenyuk, who was injured during Wednesday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, will miss the first round of the playoffs with a lower-body injury.